Many thanks to Britt Bunyard, Publisher of FUNGI Magazine, for this beautiful tribute.

The mycological community was heartbroken on March 16, 2018 to learn of Gary Lincoff’s passing. He was the greatest mycologist of my lifetime, a great friend, and a great person. Gary was an American treasure. He was larger than life. Mycophiles and fans, upon seeing him for the first time in person, were nervous to approach—he was so famous. But he was the most welcoming, the most friendly, the most giving person I knew. That any of us knew. He gave absolutely all of his time to educating others. Every person in the mycological community in North America, and beyond, knew him. If you invoke the name “Gary,” everyone knows of whom you’re speaking.Continue reading →

The New York Botanical Garden has been a mycological presence in New York City since its founding in the 1800s. It has been the workplace of the mycologists Lucien Underwood, Howard Bigelow, Clark Rogerson, Harry Thiers, Samuel Ristich, Roy Halling, Barbara Thiers and Gary Lincoff.
NYBG presents programs every year in mycological studies. Here are the upcoming events for the Spring & Summer 2018.

THE HIDDEN WORLD OF LICHENS

Instructor: James Lendemer

Rock pimples, fog fingers, old man’s beard— their common names are amusing, but lichens are among Earth’s most amazing and oldest living things, and display incredibly beautiful colors and shapes. They grow on bark, rock, and barren soil, and thrive in rain forests, deserts, the arctic—even environments simulating Mars! Lichens are sensitive environmental indicators, yet scientists are only just beginning to understand them. Join noted NYBG lichenologist James Lendemer for a captivating session that includes a microscope lab and a lichen hunt on the Garden grounds. Dress for the weather.

MUSHROOM PAPERMAKING

Instructor: Dorothy Smullen

Use bracket fungi to create beautiful, earth-toned sheets of paper under the expert guidance of mycologist Dorothy Smullen. This hands-on class will walk you step-by-step through the papermaking process, and introduce you to the many different mushrooms you can use for a variety of hues. Your friends will be Instagramming your thank you cards in no time.

SPRING MUSHROOMS

Instructor: Paul Sadowski

Morels, though hard to spot, occur throughout the metropolitan region, and spring is the ideal time to find them. Discover how and where to hunt for them, as well as numerous other spring mushrooms including oysters, inky caps, wine caps, dryad’s saddle, reishi, and the early-spring chicken mushroom. Learn to correctly identify mushrooms, how to differentiate them from look-alikes, and get recipes for the best ways to prepare them in a meal.

MUSHROOMS & MYCORRHIZAE

Instructor: Roy Halling, Ph.D.

Join Dr. Roy Halling, NYBG’s Curator of Mycology, on an insider’s tour of the Thain Family Forest. A widely published expert on mushrooms around the world (and featured on the podcast Radio Lab!), Dr. Halling will discuss how mushrooms contribute to a forest’s health, delving into the process by which mycorrhizal roots share water and nutrients with their tree partners in exchange for carbohydrates. You’ll gather a variety of mushrooms to dissect and observe under microscopes, using stains to distinguish between plant and fungal material.

Lectures will be held on Monday nights, from 6:00-8:00, at the Central Park Arsenal. The entrance is just off 5th Ave. at 64th St.

The Arsenal, Central Park

830 5th Ave., Rm 318 (@ 64th St.)

New York, NY 10065

February 26th

Ethan Crenson

“Blotches, Spots, and Bumps on Logs: Getting Small To Find Unknown Fungal Treasures Staring Us In the Face”

Ethan Crenson received an MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in NYC in the 1990s. He runs two companies, a graphic design company and a gallery/publishing house for artists’ multiples. He became interested in fungi around 10 years ago and joined the New York Mycological Society shortly thereafter. He is an active contributor to the five borough fungal survey, Gary Lincoff’s effort to inventory the fungal inhabitants of NYC. He became interested in very small fungi about three years ago.

March 19th

Roy Halling

“Mushrooms of Costa Rica: An Overview”

Roy Halling received a masters degree in 1976 at San Francisco State University with a thesis on the Boletaceae of the Sierra Nevada. He earned a docterate degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1980. He then held a two-year postdoctoral position at Harvard University at the Farlow Herbarium. In 1983 he accepted the position of assistant curator of mycology at the New York Botanical Garden, where he currently holds the position of research mycologist and curator of mycology. While in New York, he began to focus on the macrofungi of South America. He obtained a National Science Foundation grant to do a survey of the Collybia in South America. This survey began a fifteen-year collaboration with Dr. Greg Mueller to document to macrofungi of the oak forests in Costa Rica. He continues his work in Costa Rica and is actively involved in international collaboration with other specialists on the systematics, biogeography, and phylogeny of boletes, with particular emphasis in Australia and Southeast Asia.

April 23rd

Rachel Swenie

“Mushrooms with Teeth: The History, Diversity, and Edibility of the Mushroom Genus Hydnum”

Rachel Swenie is PhD student in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, where she studies the diversity, evolution, and biogeography of mushroom-forming fungi. She has done mycological field work throughout the southeastern US and in southern South America. Originally from Chicago, Rachel formerly ran an edible mushroom farm where she cultivated a variety of gourmet mushrooms.

May 21st

Richard Jacob

“DNA Barcoding and the Mycoflora Project”

Richard Jacob is a scientist working in the field of proteomics identifying and quantitating peptides and proteins. His work has taken him from his home town of Cambridge in the UK to Germany and the USA. He became very interested in mushrooms when he moved to Pittsburgh and found morels growing in the backyard and joined Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club so that he could learn how to find more. Recently Richard has used his scientific background to pioneer the clubs DNA barcoding project and he is a member of the NAMA Mycoflora committee. In 2016 Richard was awarded the Harry and Elsie Knighton Service Award by NAMA for his contributions to the WPMC and wider community.

Call for NEMF 2017 Volunteers & Book Auction Contributions
Korvasienipiirakka
Looking for Morels in All the Right Places
I Must Eat Mushrooms for Dinner
NYMS History:From the Archives of the Farlow Herbarium
Naturalist Symbiosis: Beetle/Fungi Interactions
Mycommentary
Annual Meeting Minutes

Microscopy Course Description
Revolutionary Mushroom Cooking Technique
NYMS Winter Gathering by Mical Moser
Mycommentary by Ethan Crenson
The Year in Mushrooms, a 2016 Wrap-up by Tom Bigelow
Emil Lang Lecture Series
A Day at The Garden by Paul Sadowski